


Pawns in a Game of Go

by mmmdraco



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Assassins, Gen, Sociopath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 09:11:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsutsui liked go. It was a nice contrast to the killing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pawns in a Game of Go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Qem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qem/gifts).



> So, Qem asked for assassin!Tsutsui... and this is what came out. It was supposed to be a drabble? -_-

Tsutsui pushed the glasses up his nose and looked around the crowded convention hall and clutched his book a little tighter. The rest of the go club was crowded around him and it wasn't easy to be stuck in the middle of the pack and still somehow shift their focus, their movement, where he needed it to go. But he got them where he needed before the man left and that was all he required. 

His target: Kunihara Daisuke; the second-in-command of some reject second-tier zaibatsu about to be bought out by one of the big four. Tsutsui didn't need to know all of the details; just enough to make his kill. He had the money in his bankbook and the poison in the pen. It wasn't really a pen, though. 

As the go club crowded around a computer for a Net Go display, Tsutsui flipped his book to the final page and slid a tiny syringe of his own design out. It hardly carried any liquid at all; but it was enough for the toxin he carried. The real bright point had been in designing the needle. Most needles were thin to prevent discomfort, but not Tsutsui's. Instead, it mimicked a stinging insect. One sharp jolt of pain and his victims were dead. They just wouldn't know it for a while yet.

Letting the book flip back to a favorite practice problem whose page was creased open, Tsutsui let himself sidle up to the man with his expensive suit and thin goatee and smacked the syringe against his shoulder and then immediately pocketed it as Kunihara screamed and turned to him. "What the hell are you doing, kid?"

"There was an insect on you, sir! I'm sorry. I tried to shoo it away, but it wouldn't go, so I tried to swat it. Did it sting you, sir?"

The man tried to rub at his shoulder and Tsutsui let his eyes open wide to great effect under his glasses. "Yes, it stung me, you brat. You're just lucky I'm in a forgiving mood today."

Tsutsui bowed his head low. "Of course, sir. Thank you for that!" He hugged the book to his chest and moved closer to where Fujisaki was pointing something out to the others. 

They could stay another hour or so before Tsutsui would excuse himself and go home to his empty apartment and sit and think about life and how it could lead to this. He was in middle school and living alone because his parents... They'd run off. Or something. Tsutsui wasn't sure where they'd gone or if they might show up again some day. It hadn't mattered in the grand scheme of things, though. He'd run through all of his money far more quickly than he could have imagined and then went on to sell almost all of his possessions. Then, it had been stealing. At first, it was just food. He was so hungry and no one ever missed that extra taiyaki he managed to sneak out of the bag sitting beside them on a bench. But they they never really noticed him tripping and falling into a fountain that somehow had less coins on the bottom after he extracted himself. Luck had been against him, though, the first time he tried to take a wallet though. That was when he'd managed to pick a pocket quite easily... but discovered quickly that the wallet had belonged to the oyabun of a yakuza family.

He'd made a lot of promises to try to get them not to injure him. He'd said a lot of things he didn't remember. In the end, they picked up on the most outrageous thing he'd spouted out: "I'm an assassin!" and they'd run with it as though they couldn't wait to catch him on the out and bring him to justice for lying. 

In his cowardice, he killed a man. Poison. It was an easy thing, really. He observed that man, a rival gang member, and noticed he liked some absurd energy drink that looked like lime green cough syrup, and had then run to his uncle's house to confess everything that had happened in hopes of making it all go away, but somehow... He'd ended up helping with his uncle's car that seemed to have more leaks than functioning pieces, and he'd seen the bright color of the antifreeze and smelled the sugary-sweet tang in the air as it poured... And later he'd found himself pouring a large measure of it into a can of the energy drink and switching it for one that had been on a table, and watching as the man drank it with gusto and then... 

He'd reported back to the oyabun who offered him up another assignment, but for money instead of forgiveness. Since he'd found his stomach growling at the scent of the antifreeze just because of the promise of food, he found himself saying yes. 

Tsutsui had grown up utterly fascinated with science. And poisons seemed to appeal to him as a way to keep real blood off of his hands. It had taken him a bit of scheming, but he'd figured out a way to get the ingredients he needed to synthesize the poisons he read about on the Internet. Go. It was something of an out-of-the-way hobby for his science teacher, but Tsutsui didn't really know anyone who played. He picked up a book about go and started working his way through the problem sets and learning enough to at least seem like his interest was genuine, and then he convinced everyone who needed convincing that people would come to a go club. 

To his astonishment, he found he liked the go. It was a nice contrast to the killing, though he was amazed to find he didn't mind that much, either. Each was a plan that was assembled piece by piece, but one lingered longer than the other. Still, the access to the chemicals was what he needed, and it's what he got. He never needed much, really. Even the things in a middle school chemistry lab could make vials of potent elixirs of death. 

Kunihara was starting to complain about the heat in the room now and Tsutsui took that as his cue. He tapped Fujisaki on the shoulder and smiled his most good-natured smile. "Hey, guys? I really wish I could stay, but I have to help my grandmother with airing out the futons. But I'll see you in the club, right?" He smiled as they started to agree and headed off with a wave. 

He hadn't been sure when other people started actually joining the go club. It was a weird thing, wasn't it? It made stealing supplies a little more difficult, but it was certainly convenient to have ready-made scapegoats. And Tsutsui liked having people to play against. It wasn't the same as outwitting a victim, but he also wasn't nearly as good at it.

Tsutsui wondered sometimes, there... alone in his apartment... if his parents left because of him and because they could tell he would turn out this way. But, somehow, it didn't really matter. He didn't miss them all that much now that he had money, and skills, and power... He wasn't sure what he would do now if they _did_ come back. 

He flipped open his book of go problems and reached for the bowl of black stones and started to lay out the complex pattern on his new go ban. The kaya wood sounded beautiful as the _pachi_ of the stones rang out against it. He had homework to do, but it was chemistry. And, lately? He hadn't been having a problem with it at all.


End file.
